$5 Telephoto I Found On KEH

altjonny wrote:

I have an old Minolta SRT101 that my grandfather gave to me and a couple of lenses (Vivitar 28-90 2.8-3.5 & Rokkor 58mm 1.4) that go with that + a 2x teleconverter.

I’ve never actually used the camera but since I bought my Lumix G7 in 2016 I’ve had a MFT to MD mount adapter so I would usually use the Vivitar along with the rest of my kit. Anyways, what I never thought about until recently is, why don’t I buy old lenses for that mount?

Apparently you can get these old MD mount lenses for super cheap. I was looking for an 80-200 and I finally found one on KEH. It was listed as a “Miscellaneous Brand” 80-200 f4 for MD mount in excellent condition for only $5!! I never bought a lens so fast. Shipping was $9 but who cares. $14 total and it’s the best lens purchase of my life.

When it got here I took the 80-200 and slapped that baby on the 2x teleconverter and then the adapter to my Lumix G9. So now it’s a 400mm on a 2x crop sensor. So an insane 800mm equiv. Never had I used a lens this long but boy is it some good fun. Would not use this professionally, but it’s just so fun to use. It’s like a telescope. I’m waiting for a full moon to show up so I can give it a go on that.

Here’s some of my favorite shots I’ve gotten so far in the first week that I’ve had it. I shot these all from my house.

Yeah, best $14 I’ve ever spent.

Adapting lenses is lots of fun. And, yes, can be cheap!

The flower shot has lots of character. Good luck getting that with a modern, electronic lens.

The ability to adapt my Nikon lenses was one of the major draws of M4/3 when I was buying into the system. I actually added quite a few nikon AI-S lenses to fill holes in the M4/3 lens line-up, which in fact, still exist. A 105mm f2.8 macro and 200mm f4 IF macro.

I also inherited a number of Pentax SMC Takumar (50mm f1.4, 105mm f2.8) and Olympus OM (135mm f2.8) lenses.

When I was in St. Petersburg , Russia a few years ago, I picked up a Jupiter 8 (50mm f2, Leica L39 screwmount) for 2000 rubles (about $32!). It's a great little lens, with really nice color signature and TINY. It sort of got me on the road of adapting rangefinder lenses.